


The Enemies of Old

by Kaza999



Series: Clear Skies [4]
Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: F/M, chiduggery ends even worse than valduggery will, skul just acquires doomed relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-01
Updated: 2013-08-01
Packaged: 2017-12-22 03:00:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/908107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaza999/pseuds/Kaza999
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skulduggery has few friends.  China has even fewer.  They are uniquely suited to each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Enemies of Old

**Author's Note:**

> Without Val, I figure Skulduggery becomes much more isolated and abrasive than he is in canon. He's more stable than canon Skulduggery, because he never goes to the Faceless Ones' realm, but he's by no means a friendly guy.

It was several weeks after Nefarian Serpine had been killed, and currently Skulduggery had decided that now would be a good time to come see China. 

“How does it feel to be rid of your nemesis?” China asked offhandedly as the pair of them walked between the bookcases, taking care to avoid the other patrons of the library. China didn't like disturbing her customers unless it was necessary. 

Skulduggery shrugged in a noncommittal sort of way. “A little dull, to be honest.”

“You _would_ think so. Personally, I believe it's a good thing when a problem is removed from my way.” frowning, she took a book off one of the shelves and put it back into its proper place. Someone had put it where it didn't belong. 

“It always seems like that at first, but it actually turns out that having enemies is much more fun than not having them.”

She smirked, just a little bit. “Like I said. You would think that.” she walked away from him, down another aisle of bookshelves. He followed her closely. “I _am_ glad that you got rid of Serpine, though. The man was intolerably obnoxious.”

“Well, yes, he was, if you wanted to make a drastic understatement. That's true.”

She looked over her shoulder at him. “Was there anything in particular you needed?” He hadn't mentioned anything yet, and she was beginning to wonder what he was here for. No one ever came to her just to chat.

He shrugged. “Not really. I don't actually have any cases I'm working on right now.”

“What _are_ you doing here then?”

“What do most people come to libraries for? I was actually here looking for a book, but I found you instead.”

“You have not actually come to me for information.” China determined. “You are _bored_.” he _had_ come to her just to talk after all. China wasn't sure whether to be flattered or irritated, so she decided to be safe and chose irritated. 

“Could you blame me if I was?” he asked. 

She pursed her lips. “You _do_ realize I have a library that needs tending to.”

“Well, that makes one of us who has actual work that needs doing.”

“Just because there is a lack of suitably interesting crimes for you to investigate is no reason to bother me.”

“Is there someone _else_ available to bother?”

China let out the slightest of sighs. Sometimes it was to her benefit that Skulduggery did not have many friends. Due to his temperament, a great deal of his companions were law-abiding, with good pasts. She didn't need to be associating with a great many of those kinds of people.

This, however, was a time when it would be nice if Skulduggery was a bit more sociable. Then, at least, China wouldn't be the first one on his list of people to go and bother when he had nothing else to do. 

"Come here," she said, leading him down towards a different section of the library. "I will recommend you a book, and then you can leave me in peace."

… … …

“What is it about Baron Vengous acquiring Lord Vile's armor that disturbs you so much?” China asked curiously. She wasn't concerned, by any stretch of the imagination. Just curious.

“Aren't _you_ disturbed about it?” he looked at her, head tilted to one side. 

“Not as such, no. Baron Vengeous cannot compare to Lord Vile. The thing to be concerned about where Vengeous is concerned is the Grotesquerie.”

“Well, yes, that is _one_ thing.”

“I am fairly sure that is the _major_ thing to be worried about.”

Skulduggery looked away, his posture indicating that he was unconvinced. China was getting better at reading him lately. She still couldn't place all the expressions he made, but she was getting a hang of it. 

… … …

“So. I was right.” China had taken a detour and gone to Skulduggery's house this time, instead of waiting for him to come to her. She had only been to his home once before, but she remembered where it was. He had quite a few books, much more than she remembered him having. 

“Right about what?” 

China crossed her arms. “Vengeous donning Lord Vile's armor _wasn't_ the most dangerous thing we had to watch out for after all.”

Skulduggery tilted his chin to the left. “Mm.” That was probably the best admittance that he was wrong that China was ever going to get. 

“What happened to the armor, anyway?”

“We don't know,” he said. “It vanished.” 

She shook her head, disappointed. “It's a shame, really.”

“Why do you say that?” he looked at her, head cocked in the way she guessed meant he was suspicious. 

“Well, for one, this way there's no one preventing someone else from getting a hold of it and trying to use it,” she pointed out. “For another, that's a powerful Necromantic artifact lost. That's always a shame.”

“Hm. I suppose.” he didn't sound very convinced, but then again, China didn't expect him to be. 

… … …

“Bored again?” China glanced at him over her shoulder. 

“How could you tell?”

“Because you've spent the last twenty minutes just hanging about and not bringing up anything important.” he had, too. 

"It just so happens that nothing important has happened of late." he leaned back against one of the bookshelves, hands in his pockets. Despite his affected nonchalance, he looked restless to her.

"Evidently not." thoughtfully, she tapped a finger on her lips. "If you are in need of distraction, there _are_ quite a few books I can recommend."

"That sounds like as good an idea as any."

… … …

“That last murder was quite spectacular. How did it turn out?” it had been, in fact, one of the more spectacular murders she'd ever heard of. Quite interesting. 

Skulduggery shrugged. “Nothing too special, to be honest. Very creative killer, but he wasn't so good at avoiding the law.”

“Isn't that how it always is?” she sighed. 

He looked at her. “Not really.”

“Are you sure? There are quite a few creative crimes. Not so many clever criminals.” it was too bad, really. So many people devoted their time to extravagant crimes and just seemed to forget that people would come to _investigate_ those crimes. 

He tilted his head to one side. “You may have a point there.”

… … …

China came to look forward to Skulduggery's regular visits.

He hardly ever came to her for work reasons anymore. Ever since that last fiasco with Baron Vengeous, things had quieted down quite a lot, and left Skulduggery with a great deal of free time. He used that time to come see her more and more often.

She didn't really know why he'd latched on to her the way he had. She thought that maybe he was drifting away from his older friends. He was getting restless with so little to do, and the brutality that Serpine had always inspired in him had not gone away with his enemy's death. The few friends he had probably didn't like that very much.

China, for her part, liked the brutality and the ruthlessness. She had very little need for mercy in her life. 

... ... ...

"It almost makes me concerned, how little is going on," China told him one night. They sat in her apartment, in chairs across from each other. She had a cup of tea. He didn't have anything. 

"Oh?" he said. 

"It seems quite unusual that no crises have occurred recently, nothing too dire or dangerous." the quiet of the past few years seemed unnatural, like it couldn't last forever. 

"It _is_ a bit of a statistical anomaly." he nodded in agreement. "There haven't even been any extremely strange murders in the past few months."

She pursed her lips, brow furrowing. "I wonder why that is?"

"No idea. I can't say I like it much either, though." he met her gaze, and she raised her eyebrows at him. 

"It doesn't seem to bode very well, does it?"

"No. Not really. To be honest, it makes me nervous."

Her and Skulduggery both, then. Not that she'd ever admit to being _nervous_ about anything. 

... ... ...

It soon became that only a few days would pass in between Skulduggery's visits to her library. China quite enjoyed each one, though she didn't like to show it so obviously. He was, after all, one of the few men that had ever been able to make her laugh. 

… … ...

“It's good to see you.” China said. She smiled at him, and put her arms around his neck. He hadn't visited her for a whole week, and she had been beginning to wonder what was going on. 

Startled, he stared at her. 

She raised an eyebrow. “You're supposed to put your hands on my waist when I do this. I mean, normally there are other options, but we _are_ a bit limited here.”

“Ah.” he obliged her. “I am doing this...why?”

“For someone who claims to be so intelligent, you can be quite dense when you feel like it.” she sighed and pressed her lips against his teeth. 

… … …

Most people would not expect skeletons to be good lovers, but China knew better. Of course, they both had to do some figuring out of logistics, but it all worked out in the end. 

... ... ...

It was late at night, and the pair of them lay wrapped in each other's arms on China's bed. The coolness of his bone against her skin was strangely comforting to her, even though she was used to hotter bedmates. 

"The way things change is interesting, isn't it?" he murmured.

"Mm?" she said sleepily.

"We used to be enemies."

"That was a long time ago," she reminded him, running one of her hands alongside his jawbone. 

"Yes. It was." gently, he carded his fingers through her long dark hair. She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against his sternum, and went back to sleep. 

… … …

The Requiem Ball was not an event China often frequented, but Skulduggery had asked that she accompany him, so there she was. 

When they arrived, she drew stares as she always did, though now she suspected it was for a slightly different reason than the usual one. She spotted her brother, Mr. Bliss, in the crowd and they nodded coolly at each other. 

“Would you like to dance?” he asked her, after exchanging only the barest of greetings with the other guests.

She smiled, and took his outstretched hand. “But of course.”

They were both the most excellent of dancers, after all. 

... ... ...

" _I love you,_ " he whispered to her, believing that she was asleep and couldn't hear him.

"I love you too," she murmured softly, keeping her eyes closed. 

He didn't say anything in response, but he held her tighter. She did the same. 

… … ...

“It may have been Serpine who sprung the trap, but it was China who killed them.” Eliza was smirking as she spoke.

Skulduggery froze.

“Skulduggery--” China began, but he looked at her and she stopped cold. 

He holstered his gun, then turned and walked away.

"Skulduggery--!" China called, and she thought she saw him falter, but ultimately he continued walking. 

… … ...

“Have you heard about China Sorrows recently?” Ghastly asked, eyeing Skulduggery over his sewing machine.

Skulduggery didn't look up from his book. “No.”

Ghastly focused his attention back on his sewing and shook his head. That tone of voice meant that Skulduggery was quite clearly done with the subject. He resisted the urge to tell Skulduggery I-told-you-so.


End file.
